LSU sweeps West Virginia to earn spot in College World Series

Published 9:11 am Monday, June 9, 2025

BATON ROUGE — For the 20th time, the LSU Tigers will turn Omaha into Eauxmaha.

Steven Milam and Jake Brown each drove in four runs, and the Tigers used two big innings to blow out West Virginia 12-5 and complete a sweep of their NCAA baseball super regional series on Sunday.

LSU (48-15) clinched its 20th trip to the College World Series, and second in three seasons. It won the national championship in 2023.

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“It’s been an unbelievable ride for us the last nine or 10 months that we’ve put in together as a team. Started all the way back on September 1st in the meeting room, meeting everybody for the first time, and going out, having the first practice in the humidity and heat. We were built in it from day one,” said LSU first baseman Jared Jones, who was 3-for-4 with one RBI. “From day one there was a fundamental — to go out there and compete to have a lot of fun doing it. That’s what we did tonight — we went out there and competed and had a lot of fun doing it.”

LSU scored in double figures for the fourth time in six NCAA tournament games. After routing West Virginia 16-9 in Game 1 of the super regional on Saturday, LSU scored a run in the top of the first inning in Game 2 and then five more in the second.

After West Virginia (44-16) trimmed its deficit to 6-4 in the fifth inning, the Tigers struck for six more runs in the seventh inning to blow it open again. Five of the Tigers’ runs during the rally were scored after a pair of two-out errors.

Milam hit a bases-clearing double in the second inning, and another RBI double in the seventh. Brown singled in a run in the second inning, then blasted a two-run home run over the center field fence in the seventh.

Milam had eight RBIs in the super regional, and 14 in the NCAA Tournament — nearly a quarter of his total of 55 for the season.

“I heard my dad a lot, getting back to the basics, and I love the big moment. I didn’t help my team as much as I wanted to during the year. I had to step up, take pressure off the other guys. I feel like I’ve been able to do that. Our whole team is running great at-bats one through nine. You can punch in 15 different guys and we’re going to beat you,” Milam said. “I just love the big moments. It’s what I came here for, and that’s why you come to LSU.”

LSU was the seventh of eight teams to punch its ticket to Omaha for the College World Series. Murray State beat Duke in Game 3 of their super regional Monday to round out the field.

LSU will take on Southeastern Conference rival Arkansas (48-13) on Friday or Saturday. UCLA and Murray State winner will also be on their side of the bracket. Louisville and Oregon State, and Arizona and Coastal Carolina will play on the other side. Game dates and times will be announced Monday night.

A record 13 SEC teams qualified for the NCAA Tournament, but LSU and Arkansas were the only two to make it through to Omaha. It’s the first time since 2016 that less than three SEC teams have reached the CWS. The conference has won the last five national championships.

“I think we have the best league. I don’t think it’s close either. And I don’t think two weeks of baseball change that,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said. “But it’s baseball. Football and basketball, big, fast people beat little fast people. In baseball you have a pitcher that determines everything. If a pitcher gets hot and rolls through a game and puts a team in the losers’ bracket, then you have the psychological warfare if you lose one game and your season is over, and 18- and 21-year olds, unless they’re trained properly, they’re not built to deal with that all the time and crazy stuff can happen.”

About Ernest Bowker

Ernest Bowker is The Vicksburg Post's sports editor. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post's sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper's 140-year history. The New Jersey native is a graduate of LSU. In his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.

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